Financial Discipleship

Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that's in it. I am Rob West.

Deuteronomy 10-14 leaves no doubt about God's total ownership, yet it's often a challenge for Christians to put that principle into practice. Dan Schilling joins us today to talk about making that happen. Then it's on to your calls at 800-5. 800-525-7000.

That's 800-525-7000. This is MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. Well, our guest today is Dan Schilling, North American president of Compass Finances God's Way.

And just in case you don't know what that is, Compass is a financial discipleship ministry founded by our dear friend and former host of this program, Howard Dayton. Welcome, Dan, to the program. Rob, it's a pleasure to be with you and just a pleasure to have been on this journey with Howard over the last number of years as well.

So just great to be with you today. Well, I know you've been there every step of the way. Compass is doing some great work, and we'll have a chance to talk about that more a little bit later in the broadcast. But first, we're used to this term stewardship, Dan, when we talk about managing God's money. But financial discipleship, something that you're focusing more on now than ever at Compass, that goes a step further.

Talk to us about that. How does financial discipleship draw us closer to the heart of the Father? Yeah, Rob, you and I have been around this work for a long time, and it's something that stewardship has been a key focus over the last probably 45, 50 years by founder of King's Advisors, Ron Blue, our founder, Howard Dayton, the late Larry Burkett.

And so this has really been bringing stewardship to our awareness. And we feel like this next season, God said, we're called to be a financial discipleship ministry, called to make financial disciples. And what is a financial disciple, and what's the difference? And so stewardship in many times has an unintended consequences in the church.

It becomes something that I'm managing my money. We know that God owns it all, but we still look through the lens as if it's really mine. And so one of the things that we're trying to get really laser focused on is how do we help folks not only understand God's ownership, but really the next step is surrender. And if we haven't surrendered this area to the lordship of Jesus, can we really be a fully devoted disciple? And Luke 14, 33 says, no one can be my disciple unless he gives up all of his possessions. And so we believe that either Jesus is either Lord of all or he's not Lord at all, and we need to help each of us in our journey to say, how can I continue to walk that out? So there are five fundamentals that we see that a financial disciple does. A financial disciple acknowledges God's ownership, they surrender, and then we all have a choice. And that choice is, am I going to serve God or am I going to serve money? And we see that in a couple patches, Matthew 6, 24 being one of the main ones.

I love that. You know, I have said for a long time, Dan, that if there's going to be one thing that perhaps we allow to dethrone God from his rightful place, his first position in our lives, it's going to be money and the things that money can buy. It's the chief competitor, perhaps to lordship. And so leaning into this and saying, I want to surrender everything, including God's money and even the power to create wealth, which we know comes from the Lord himself, that's key. And it leads to intimacy with the Father, which is what we all strive for.

And we've got just about a minute left before our first break here. Help us unpack this a bit more. Any other similarities or differences, Dan, that come to mind between financial discipleship and stewardship? Yeah, Rob, one of the things that we've seen is that stewardship, again, many of the unintended consequences of stewardship is it creates a sense of greed or selfishness like, hey, I've got mine. I got on a budget.

I got out of debt. I got my college savings, IRA, 401K, all those things done, but it misses the point that Jesus doesn't want us just to steward for the sake of stewarding better, meaning the Bank of the Kingdom is not running short. He doesn't need us to steward better so that he can get things accomplished for his kingdom. He really wants his kingdom to be established, which we're a king that has dominion, and the king of kings wants dominion or rule or authority in our hearts. And sometimes what we've seen is that some of the stewardship teachings and things that are going on in the church really aren't focused on the surrendering and the lordship aspect. It's more about the management of and that I get all the i's dotted and t's crossed, but at the end of the day, if we got all the i's dotted and t's crossed financially, but we're still greedy, dishonest, discontent, lovers of money, pleasure, and self, and we really don't care about the kingdom, we have to ask ourselves, are we stewarding just for the sake of being a better money manager, or are we stewarding to expand his kingdom? And that's really what God's ultimately desiring for us.

Man, that is so powerful and something we all need to think about. We're talking with Dan Schilling today, North American President of Compass. Finance is God's way.

Stewardship or financial discipleship? We'll continue to unpack this a bit more just around the corner. This is MoneyWise Live. More to come. Stay with us.

Welcome back. I'm your host, Rob West. Joining us today, my good friend, Dan Schilling, North American President of Compass. Finance is God's way. We're talking about financial discipleship. What does it mean to put everything, including God's money that you're managing under the lordship of Christ?

And if you do, what are the implications of that? And Dan, as you said just before the break, this is really a game-changing idea because it really shapes everything. And, you know, my experience, Dan, is that your financial journey is one of the key ways God shapes your spiritual journey. Have you found that to be true? And how does this idea of financial discipleship play into that?

Well, you're exactly right, Rob. Even in our own journey for many years, I would say I stewarded wisely, but the problem was I was stewarding for the sake of myself, and I wasn't really focused on the kingdom. And I think one of the things that we want to help folks on is a financial discipleship journey that it isn't just a class to take. Many of us have been through classes. We've been through a Bible study. Maybe the Howard Dayton or Ron Blue was done, and those are great things to do, but it's not a one-time thing.

It's not an episodic event. It's a journey, to be honest. So we want to help folks on this financial discipleship journey, which we believe is a process of learning and applying and multiplying that truth in the lives of others. So we learn what the Bible says about money. We apply it into our life, and then we multiply it into the lives of others. And we think that's one of the key distinctives and differences with financial discipleship is that there is an expectation of multiplication.

I'm going to repeat that. We believe that God has an expectation of multiplication, that he gives us the truth of his word, and he wants us to multiply that in the life of others. And so what happens many times is in the stewardship, we just think about, again, ourselves, but this really helps us start to think eternally. What's the real result that I'm after? And it's really to be focused on his kingdom and propagating his kingdom in the hearts of others.

Yeah, that's very good. Dan, you mentioned financial discipleship being something that you live in rather than something you arrive at. It's not a destination. Why is it so important to look at financial discipleship as a journey? Well, Rob, it's one that I know you've been on for a long time and I have as well. And it's every time in our journey for Sherri and I, we've found ourselves continually saying, are you willing to take the next step? I want to entrust you with more and not more financially, but more of him, more of the truth of his word.

Luke 16 and 11, one of our founder, Howard Dayton's favorite verse says, therefore, if you've not been faithful in the use of worldly wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And we believe God has so much more, but it's not these temporal things. He wants to entrust us with more of himself, more intimacy like you referred to earlier. And so this isn't just a one time I took the class, I got on a budget, I got out of debt, I got all these things done. It really is how am I going to continue to grow? And when he taps on our heart and says, okay, I'm ready to take you to that next level of maturity or that next, just like you and I both talk about our children, how we are raising them and training them, that I believe God wants to train us and help us learn how to be more like him and our focus on him and not the temporal things here that we sometimes get so wound up and bound up and caught up in trying to manage these things.

But they're really owning us, and we're not owning them anymore. Yeah, that's so helpful. Dan, we often talk about the fact that money issues are heart issues, and I know you know that full well. Jesus said where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. And so these are heart related matters, but they're also practical because we manage money, we handle money every day. So when we get this area of our lives right, when we truly embrace this idea of financial discipleship, what are the practical implications of that day to day as I manage God's money? Yeah, and I think for Sharon and I too, what we've found is we really still believe that stewarding wisely is a key part. But I'm not just stewarding our, one of the guys on our team has a great quote, Kyle Hasbrook, and he says that we strive for simplicity, so others can experience eternity. And so we want to be wise with what God gives us, we want to do well with it, but it's not just so that I can have more put my heart and trust in it. So one thing is to steward wisely, but we do it to the lens of how can I use what God's given me to expand his kingdom. The other thing is really we get to be on display of the generosity of God. It's his money, it's his resources, and he wants to show his goodness, his kindness through us. And first Timothy talks about, he says warn those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant and not to put their hope and trust in riches, but to be rich in good deeds so that others, we lay up that firm foundation is what he's looking for us to start thinking about.

Why am I here? And it's to be really a light to those around us and showing the goodness of God. Yeah, it reminds me, Dan, as I hear you talk about Luke 12, the parable of the rich fool, where we read it says, whoever stores up things for themselves, but is not rich toward God. And this idea of being rich toward God is something I've spent a lot of time just thinking about and meditating on. This idea that we want it to be apparent as we handle our money that God is our treasure and not the money. Is that a key part of this as we manage God's money day to day? Yeah, absolutely.

And I think one of the things when we do start to get our alignment to there is our heart shifts. So we talk about is God true to his word? Is he worthy of our trust? Is he worthy of us not worrying about what we have to eat or what we drink or what we wear? And that we don't want to be is that parable you're talking about is we don't want to be a fool. The man was called a fool because he wasn't rich towards God.

His relationship with God was missing something, and it was missing trust like the rich young ruler that we see in Matthew 19. And so we believe this is that when people start to surrender and they start getting this area of their heart aligned to the king, that we get to experience more of him, more of the fruits of the spirit. There's a greater love and a joy and a peace as it surrounds our finances because we know who owns it all and who's going to continue to provide for us and care for us and take care of us so that we can then be that reflection to others as well.

We've got just a minute or so left and talk for just a second about this multiplication idea, because this is a big idea that this doesn't end with us, that we then carry this message to others. Well, Rob, you know, like anything, when you've been set free from something like if you had those kind of the golden handcuffs on and you've been bound up and worry and fear and all these things that can happen to us as it relates to money. When you've been set free, I believe God's called us to take that freedom to others as well. The truth of his word and help others encourage. So we want to help, again, people learn the truth of his word, set them free, apply it in their life. But then we take that truth and help encourage others with that same truth. So what we want to do as a ministry in this next season is how do we help you and me and everybody else get on this journey to continue to propagate the truth of God's word in our own hearts and then help others to do the same?

That's great. Dan, where can they go to take a next step? Yeah, Rob, right now we're just telling folks to go to our website at compass1.org and there's a simple path they can choose.

I want to become a financial disciple. I want to grow on this journey personally, or they can choose, hey, I want to help others to grow on this journey. Very good. Well, Dan, so thankful for you, your friendship and your partnership in ministry. We appreciate you stopping by today. We'll have to do this again real soon. Appreciate it, Rob. Thanks for the opportunity to be here with you, brother.

All right. Our guest today has been Dan Schilling, North American president of Compass Finances God's Way. Again, you can find out more about financial discipleship at Compass1.org. That's Compass1.org.

And by the way, we'll have a link in today's show notes. You know, this idea of financial discipleship is so big. We want to know the heart of the Father. We want to recognize that everything we have comes from Him.

And when we put it under His Lordship, everything changes, including our relationship with Him. Compass1.org to learn more. Your calls are next, 800-525-7000. I'm Rob West, and you're listening to MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial journey. We'll be right back. Delighted to have you along with us today on MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host.

Thanks for being here today. We're going to take your calls and questions in just a moment. We'd love for you to get your question in the mix today. We've got some lines open. Here's the number, 800-525-7000. That's 800-525-7000.

Whatever's on your mind today, if you want to talk about saving or debt payoff, perhaps you're looking to pass these principles from God's Word related to money to your kids. And you don't know where to start. Whatever it is, we'd love to tackle it with you today. And again, you can participate by calling right now. We've got our wonderful team standing by to take your call, 800-525-7000. We're going to begin today south in Florida. We're going to talk to Sonia. Good afternoon. Thanks for calling.

How can we help? Yeah. And Sonia, specifically, are you talking about actually using cryptocurrency as a means of exchange? Are you talking about from an investment standpoint or both? You know, I don't have a concern about the technology itself. I think it's here to stay.

I think it takes some understanding. And I think this would do everyone well to spend a few minutes just reading about it, figuring out what is this blockchain technology that has become a digital means of exchange without the backing of a central bank from any particular country and how the technology works to create these transactions that are anonymous and very secure. I don't think the technology behind that is going away. I think it's here to stay. And we're going to see greater and greater uses for it, just like anything. It can be used for good or evil. And, you know, that's true with physical dollars as well.

So I don't have any problem with the means of exchange. I think the question is, should we be investing in it? There's a lot of speculation going on in investing right now in these cryptocurrencies. Obviously, Bitcoin is the most well-known, but there are many others. And we've seen a lot of additional investment in the cryptos lately because of the launch of the tracking ETFs. These are exchange traded funds that track the underlying stock of or the underlying price moves of Bitcoin, for instance.

And I was just looking at it earlier today, again, reaching new all-time highs. But like anything, and there's always some flavor of these going on at any given time, it's a lot of speculation and a lot of volatility that comes with it, far greater than I think we should be taking with God's money. So I would say stay away from an investment standpoint, because if you go there, you're going to be tempted to try to jump in and jump out, pick your time to enter or exit. And from my standpoint, that's just not investing.

The Bible talks about steady plotting, and that would be anything other than steady plotting. So I would say investment, no. But do I have a problem with it from just a means of exchange and where all of that's headed? No, I don't.

But I think it needs to be used for good, of course. So, Sonia, I hope that helps you today, and we appreciate your call very, very much. Again, some lines are open, 800-525-7000. We'd love to hear from you today with whatever's on your mind. Before we go back to the phones, let me take a quick email. This one just simply says, Dear Rob, what is the name of the site to request credit reports from all three agencies? This is from Karen. I want to make sure everything looks okay.

If I find a problem, how do I go about fixing or correcting the information that is wrong? And Karen, I'm glad you brought this up because I advise folks to pull their credit reports at least annually. Annualcreditreport.com is the website that you'll be able to get it free of charge. Again, annualcreditreport.com.

Now, why would you want to pull your credit report quarterly, four times a year, and by the way, from each of the three bureaus? Well, that's your chance to spot negative but also inaccurate or incorrect information. Now, how would there be incorrect information?

Well, it could be something that was just an honest oversight that was reported to your report incorrectly or doesn't belong to you but it made its way to your report, or somebody could have opened an account fraudulently in your name, and that's being reported to your report. You certainly want to spot that so you can take care of it. Now, what do you do to Karen's question if you spot something that's not accurate? Well, the next step is to dispute it. The good news is the Fair Credit Reporting Act would give you the means by which you can dispute that information.

Each of the three bureaus will provide a way for you to do that. And when you do, they have 30 days to either verify that it's correct or to remove it. And I think that really is the key that you spot it, that you report it as being inaccurate, and if it is, it will be removed because they won't be able to verify that information. Beyond that, negative information that's accurate, well, that's not going anywhere.

You're going to have to wait for that to fall off on its own, typically after seven years, but the good news is the more recent information impacts you the most. Now, how does that relate to your credit score? Well, the credit score is just an algorithm that determines how likely you are to repay as agreed based on the information in that report, and you can get that now free more places than ever. Credit Karma, perhaps even your own credit card, is offering you a way to check your credit score.

That's not going to hurt you at all when you check it, and it's good to watch, although I wouldn't do it too frequently. I hope that helps you today, and Karen, thanks for your email. By the way, if you have an email question that you'd like to send us, we'd be happy to receive it. Questions at MoneyWise.org is the place to send it. All right, let's head back to the phones. By the way, a few lines open today, 800-525-7000.

We'll go to Chicago next. Edward, how can I help you, sir? Hi, Rob.

I'm going to be retiring in a few years, and I should have a decent amount of money, and I was thinking to gift my son and my daughter to kind of help them pay off their mortgages, and I was wondering if, like, taking money out of the 401K and gifting it, do you get tasked on it first? I'm not sure about the implications. Yeah, very good. Well, Edward, let's do this. We're going to hit a break here quickly, and when we come back on the other side of it, we'll come right back to you, and I'd love to weigh in on this.

How do you give your kids an inheritance while you're living, which I think is a great idea, but we've got to do it wisely, and so we'll talk about that just around the corner. Some lines are open today for your question. 800-525-7000.

Stay with us. Thanks for tuning in to MoneyWise Live. I'm Rob West, your host, taking your calls and questions today. Got two lines open.

800-525-7000. Just before the break, we were talking to Edward in Chicago, who is headed into retirement ever so quickly and wanting to know how to give a gift, a partial inheritance, to his kids very soon, right now, and what that looks like from a tax standpoint. Edward, how far are you out from retirement? Well, it's about two years. Okay, and what is your age?

Sixty-two. Okay, great. And tell me what you're thinking, and I realize you've got some background noise there, but tell me what you're thinking in terms of how much you would like to give to your kids and over what time period. Well, I was thinking like 100,000 each, and I could give that like right away. I mean, it would be okay to do that. Okay, and so you've done some planning and determined how much you need to fund your lifestyle, you know, for the foreseeable future.

If the Lord were to tarry and you were to live a long, long time, you've got enough in the way of assets to cover your expenses. Is that what you're telling me? Yeah. Okay. All right.

Yeah. So the only challenge you've got is that because this money is in a tax-deferred environment, it's going to come out as taxable income, and then you'll make those gifts. Now, currently, the annual gift exclusion is $15,000 per year per person, and if it was you and your wife, you could double that.

So you have that. And then anything beyond that, and by the way, that number goes up to 16,000 next year, 2022, per year, so that'd be 32,000 if you and your wife each gave one of your children a gift in the current year. If you go beyond that, it would go against the lifetime exclusion, which currently is $11.7 million. So you've got quite a bit of running room there before any gift tax would kick in on your end, not on theirs as the one receiving it. The challenge, though, is that as that money comes out of the 401k, you're not going to have any penalties because you're over 59 and a half, but it's all taxable to you as income. So you'll have quite a tax bill that you'll be hit with on the front end, and as that pushes your taxable income up significantly for the year, a portion of that will go up into a higher tax bracket as well. And so I think that's the part where you're going to want to do some planning on this. Obviously, if it comes as an inheritance after death, then it would likely be in an IRA, and then it would be an inherited IRA, and then they could take it out over time and pay income tax on it as they take it out.

And there's specific rules that govern both how that happens and it allows them to miss the penalty for that. But I think that's the only consideration that you'd want to work with your CPA on is how do I want to pull this money out and how do I minimize the taxes as I do it? And you're probably not going to want to pull it out in $100,000 chunks, especially with multiple kids, because that's going to create quite a tax liability there as well. I think the other thing to consider is we want to pass wisdom before wealth, and the spiritual and character capital that we transfer to our kids happens over a lifetime. But you really want to think through where each of them are at spiritually and in terms of maturity level from a financial standpoint before you drop a lump sum in their laps. It doesn't mean it's always a bad thing, but I think you just want to consider are they ready to handle this?

Do they have a growing walk with Jesus and could this become a stumbling block? Are any of them making lifestyle choices that this kind of money would become negative? And I think you should also consider what is the giving role of this and what portion of this should be given away perhaps into a donor advised fund so that you and they together could perhaps start being generous with it. And maybe that's a way that you can model generosity with a portion of this so they begin to exercise that giving muscle and understand what that piece of it looks like.

These are just some ideas, but going back to the original question, I just want you to be really careful about creating a massive tax liability, and I think that's why you need to work with a professional. Does that all make sense? Oh yeah, absolutely. And by the way, I've been listening to your program for a couple years now, and it is awesome. You do a great job. I'm really grateful I've listened, and I've learned a lot, and I just want to say that what you're doing is a really good thing, and it's really helpful to a lot of people. Well, that's very kind, Edward. I appreciate those kind remarks, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to be here every day, for the team behind me, and for the chance to be invited into stories like yours to be able to weigh in and think about how we steward God's money wisely. So listen, all the best to you, my friend, in this next season of life, and we appreciate your call today.

To Muncie, Indiana, WGNR. Hi, Steve. How can I help you? Hi. Rob, thanks for taking my call, and I'm with Edward. What you do is great, and I appreciate it.

Thank you, sir. I have a store credit card that I just don't use anymore, and they have dropped my credit limit a couple of times, and every time it has affected my credit score. I know from listening to you there is a correct way to stop a credit card or to cancel a credit card. Could you go over that? Tell me how I need to do that.

Yeah, I'd be happy to, Steve. Do you carry balances on other accounts since you don't use this one? Yes, on a couple of them, but not store cards. A couple of Mastercards I have, but not any store cards.

Okay. Yeah, so that's likely the reason that you're seeing the credit drop because just the fact that they lowered the limit in and of itself is not going to have typically an impact on your credit score. What could, though, is if your total credit utilization across all of your revolving accounts, which is what a credit card is, is increased. So think about the limit that's available to you across all the accounts is one number, and then the balance you owe across all of your active accounts is another number, and there's a percentage there of your balance to your limit. It's called your credit utilization.

So as that overall limit comes down, the aggregate balances that you owe are a higher percentage of that new lower limit, and so that's the only reason that that's pushing it down. I think the key is just try to keep that under 30 percent in the aggregate in terms of credit utilization, but as it relates to closing these accounts, I like the idea of starting to wean yourself away from having these lingering store cards out there that you perhaps took on because you were going to get a discount or something like that. I would just make sure you close no more than two of them every six months.

Any kind of decline you're going to see is it will be temporary. I think the key is just make sure you remain an on-time payer. History is important, so you want to try to hang on to those older accounts. You want to keep that credit utilization low, ideally less than 10 percent, which means let's get serious about paying down any of that revolving debt, not just that you're charging up and paying off every month, but any debt that you're carrying over month to month, and that's going to help you as well by making sure that you're not paying exorbitant interest rates. Does that help you, and do you have any other follow-up questions? No, sir, that helped tremendously, and no, you answered everything that I was wondering about.

The bottom line is the benefit of closing these accounts is that's one less account you have to keep tabs on because somebody could get your username and password, compromise the account, perhaps go on a charging spree, and now you don't have to keep tabs on that each month once it's closed, but you want to do it in the right way because if you were going to go buy a refinance your mortgage or buy a car, you certainly want to have the very best credit score that you can. Steve, we appreciate your call today, and thanks for your kind remarks. We're going to pause for a brief break when we come back. Much more on MoneyWise Live.

Still some lines open, 800-525-7000. This is biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. Stay with us. Thanks for tuning into MoneyWise Live, biblical wisdom for your financial decisions. I'm Rob West, your host. Delighted to have you along with us today. Hey, it's a Monday, which means we have the chance to hear from our good friend Bob Doll, chief investment officer of Crossmark Global Investments, and Bob is a good friend, but somebody who we have great respect for as it comes to market analysis and really just helping us understand what in the world is going on in this economy. Bob, good afternoon, sir.

Same to you, Rob. What are the headlines you're looking at these days, and what do we need to know about the markets and the economy? It just keeps going up, is what I see.

Yeah, well, since we last talked a week ago, a lot has happened. The Fed had their meeting and famously announced the beginning of tapering by next summer. They will no longer be buying bonds in the open market as they've been doing now for seems like forever.

So that's kind of step two and them taking the punch bowl away. The third step, of course, will be raising rates. Second, we had Congress pass the infrastructure bill, the first one, the, can I say, somewhat less controversial one that will be signed into law passed by the Senate two months ago, the House recently, and the president will sign that, leaving the reconciliation bill, which has a lot more yards to go in front of us.

And third, we had the off-year elections, which the Republicans handed the Democrats an embarrassment in several places. I think presaging Republicans gaining a bunch of seats next November, especially in the House, as Americans are questioning a lot of the things that have been going on, including what I'll use the phrase profligate spending. So what's the market making all of this? The market's loving it. It's market saying, you know, we're getting closer to gridlock in our government. The Fed is slowly, very slowly taking the punch bowl away. In the meantime, we got more earnings that have been coming through quite good. And so the market is following that path of least resistance line that we've been using for many weeks now to the upside. Enjoy it while we have it, Rob.

Yeah, absolutely. And our 401Ks are the beneficiaries of that, not to mention our other investments. Bob, the Fed also seemed less confident in what they were calling the transitory nature of inflation previously. What do you make of that?

Yeah, a very subtle change in language. Inflation is transitory. Now it's factors that are expected to be transitory. Ever so slight switch in the verbiage, which basically says we acknowledge not all inflation is transitory and might be a little more of a problem, which I think is smart that they're waking up and smelling the coffee as it exists. Saying they're going to have to continue to be vigilant. Job growth, we had a good jobs number on Friday, and the Fed worried about jobs, worried about inflation. They've got to start fighting inflation. So is the bottom line here in the short term, Bob, that FOMO has replaced any concern over lingering COVID implications and supply chain disruptions?

Is that it? Is it the fear of missing out? FOMO and TINA. Fear of missing out and there is no alternative and stocks go up, so that is the path of least resistance and probably going to last for a while. You probably also know, Rob, we're in a seasonally very strong period from kind of early November to early mid-January. It's usually very strong for the markets, so let's enjoy the ride. Yeah, absolutely. All right, Bob, any parting words you want to share with us today before we let you go?

Because a good report so far. Other than my normal buy low and sell high, you've got all you need, Rob. God bless. Thank you, Bob. Grateful for you, my friend.

Talk in a week. Yes, sir. That was Bob Doll, chief investment officer of Crossmark Global Investments, where investments and values intersect.

And you can learn more about Bob and Crossmark Global on the web at crossmarkglobal.com. Let's head back to the phones today. Las Cruces, New Mexico. Hi, Christy. How can I help you? Hi.

Well, I just wanted to ask a little bit. I wanted to share some inheritance with my daughter before we're gone. And so I took $100,000 out of my brokerage account.

I'm high in the technology stocks and I wanted to balance it a little bit. So I cashed it, but I put $100,000 into her account to kind of give her a head start to teach her, you know, about my she's been so responsible with it so far. She's 27 and I gave her $10,000 when she was 18 and she was very responsible with it.

She grew it up to $40,000. So I just wanted to kind of keep educating her and let her, you know, build up her dividends because it takes about 30 years, 20 years to really get them the role. And when you do it, you know, when you pass away, they don't get that opportunity. Yes. I like this idea of using these resources as an opportunity to train. Are you all doing that yourselves or do you have an advisor that's a part of this scenario?

How is that working? Well, I am doing it myself. I kind of do the finances in our family and it's just my daughter and my husband and I. My daughter has her own house.

She's, you know, moved on. But I tried to balance the stock like my account has kind of. So I tried to complement hers to be a little different. So when they blend someday. Yeah.

But yeah, I wouldn't mind someone looking at it. But, you know, I just I don't know. Yeah.

Well, I understand that. I think the key is just to make sure that you have a sound investment strategy that is properly diversified, where you're not highly concentrated in a limited number of positions where it might cause you to be overweighted is another way to say that. You also want to make sure that you do, in fact, have a long term strategy. We don't want to train her that she should jump in and out of kind of stocks that are moving quickly, especially in the tech or high growth space. But I like this idea as long as it's a hands on strategy, because clearly, you know, now is an opportunity for you to influence that.

I'd love for there to be a giving component to this so you can model that side of it as well. And a donor advised fund or what's called a giving fund with our friends at the National Christian Foundation could be a great tool for you to not only teach her about investing, but also teach her about giving. And maybe a portion of that goes into the donor advised fund that you and she work on directly in terms of where those funds are given. And that could also provide a nice incentive in terms of a tax deduction as well.

The only other thing I would mention to you, Christy, is just make sure you check in with your CPA if you have one. And if you don't, I would connect with one, because even though this will go against your lifetime gift exemption of eleven point seven million this year, even though you don't owe any gift tax, you still might need to file a gift tax return just so you can report the gift to the IRS since it was considerable. Again, it would only affect the giver, not the recipient. So it'd be on your end. And again, it would go against that exclusion, so there shouldn't be any gift tax owed.

But that doesn't mean you don't need to file a return. So I would check in on that just so that is done properly and there's no surprises down the road. But I appreciate you sharing this idea. Make sure you're passing both spiritual capital, character capital and financial capital at the same time.

But I love the idea that you're training her along the way. Let's head to Ohio. Hi, Elizabeth. How can I help you? Hi, I was coming to ask you if you think it's biblical to ask a mortgage company to accept less on what you owe to pay it off. They know that I have a disability. I share with them that the house needs a ton of work, like a roof and all kinds of stuff. And so I'm wondering if it's biblical. I have some finances right now, but I also have medical needs that are not covered through insurance. Therefore, some of this money has to go toward that, which I have no idea how much that will add up to.

Probably thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. Sure. Well, obviously, by you asking the question, you want to honor the Lord with this.

And here's my perspective. I mean, as believers, we ought to make good on our obligations. You know, when we make a commitment, we should follow through on it. And the Bible is very clear, the wicked borrows and does not repay. Now, in a financial hardship, if a lender to protect their own interests as much as anything is willing to accept a settlement, a lower payoff based on a real legitimate need, I'd say absolutely if they're willing to give you that settlement in writing. Keep in mind, you will it'll likely be reported on your credit report that it was settled, although the idea would be if you pay the full amount that was offered and agreed to in writing and make sure you get it in writing, it will show as settled in full. Secondly, you may get 1099 for the difference that would be taxable between what was originally owed and what they agreed to take as a reduced settlement.

But apart from that, is it biblical? Again, if there's a real need and they're willing to settle at a lower amount, I think that's fine from my perspective. If not, you owe the money. And I think the question is, how can you position your finances even if you can't see that clearly today in such a way that you can actually pay this in full? And you may have to work out a loan modification. You may need to take any number of available options to get it to where you can actually afford to make the payment. But it's obviously in your best interest from a biblical standpoint, but also a financial standpoint to engage with them and try to work this out so that you can keep it in good standing. You don't have a foreclosure.

You don't have any negative implications on your credit report, but also so that you can continue to pay on it until things improve. And we'll just trust that God will provide what you need. He certainly knows what you need. And I'm trusting that as you lean into that and try to honor your commitments and be found faithful, that He will provide. So we appreciate your call today.

I hope that helps you. That's going to do it for us today. So grateful that you were along with us today as we unpacked God's word and apply it to your financial life. We appreciate every one of your phone calls. Let me say thank you to my team today, Melody and Amy and Dan and Robert.

Couldn't do it without them. Thank you for being here as well. I hope you'll come back and join us tomorrow as we'll do it all over again. I'll be here. We'll look for you then. God bless you. And God bless you.